learn the ropes

learn the ropes

To learn or understand the basic details of how to do or perform a job, task, or activity. We have a few high-priority projects we need to get done now, so you'll need to learn the ropes on your own.This class is intense! They don't even give you a chance to learn the ropes before they throw an exam at you.

learn the ropes

COMMON If you learn the ropes, you learn how to do a particular job or task. He tried hiring more salesmen to push the products, but they took too much time to learn the ropes.By the time he was 34, he had learnt the ropes of the jewellery trade. Note: You can also say that someone knows the ropes when they know how a particular job or task should be done. He'd been in the business for over ten years so he knew the ropes. Note: The origin of this expression is from sailing ships, where the sailors had to get to know the complicated system of ropes which made up the rigging.

show somebody/learn/know the ˈropes

(informal) explain to somebody/learn/know how to do a particular job, task, etc. correctly: It will take me a couple of weeks to learn the ropes but after that I should be fine. ♢ Mrs Brian will show you the ropes.This expression refers to a sailor learning the different ropes for the sails of a ship.

Jindal Global University (JGU) has signed a MoU with New Zealand's University of Otago to opportune its students to learn the ropes of international business at the Otago Master of International Business (MIntBus) and Master of Marketing Course (MMart).

As the senior non-commissioned officer he spent a great deal of time helping newly arrived Navy enlisted personnel learn the ropes of their assignments, orient them to their new mission and environment, while continuing their Navy careers.

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